Ricardo Pascoe Pierce
Va Por México stands firm for 2024 and will add part or all of Movimiento Ciudadano (MC), together with important splits of Morena. The race for the Presidency of the Republic promises to be tough and fierce.
This comes from the challenge the legislative coalition formed by PAN, PRI, and PRD launched to the government by declaring a constitutional moratorium. This position is not only about rejecting the government’s attempts to approve regressive constitutional reforms. It is also a declaration where the opposition informs the ruling party that, no matter how much it tries to defame and divide the opposition union, it is maintained and strengthened towards 2024. The constitutional moratorium is, consequently, the opposition’s response to last Sunday’s electoral results.
The ruling party, starting with the President of the Republic, has launched a media and political campaign to discredit and divide the opposition. It has encouraged members of the PAN and PRI to divide their parties. It wants to destroy all opposition from now on, seeking to render it impotent before the elections of 2023 and 2024.
The debate that was resolved in 2020 on the convenience or not of joining forces has been reborn within the PRI and PAN. This debate is being opened unusually despite facing an officialism determined to win elections by force, even violating all electoral laws and, at the same time, destroying the constitutional electoral bodies of the country. The internal divisions in PAN and PRI are reborn, skillfully built in the service of Morena and the President, to try to stop the solidity of the opposition unity. And at the same time, it serves to demoralize society about the possibilities of a future change to the political conditions currently being experienced.
The President has shown that he knows how to reward disloyalty with embassies and lucrative positions in the federal government. The President uses the budget and federal power to build his electoral muscle. He thinks only and exclusively about elections. He does not even think about his legacy as a ruler anymore. Nor does he think about “his landmark projects”. He thinks exclusively about his numbers. He lives obsessed by those damned numbers of votes.
He is happy about his “4-2” last weekend, but he knows that doesn’t solve his numerical problem. The critical states of 2024 are in intense competition: the State of Mexico, Mexico City, Veracruz, Jalisco, Nuevo Leon, Puebla, Michoacan, and Guanajuato. Those will be the electoral results that will define who will win the Presidency of the Republic. He could win those six states in 2024 and still lose the national election.
Outside those states, everything that is accumulated is necessary but not enough. And the President does not count on the certainty of winning all those states. After six years of the Morenista administration, the only thing he can boast of is a country without tangible results but with a lot of polarization and considerable resentment among the different strata of society.
The controversy and polarization he has encouraged cannot hide the lack of economic growth, the unemployment of millions of Mexicans, and the galloping inflation. In addition to the above, there is the disastrous management and medical care that will leave thousands of deaths as a legacy of his incompetence, to which is added an impoverished educational system, attacked by the quasi-religious fanaticism of the new temples of populism. In addition, there is a historical crisis of violence and insecurity and the growth of the territorial power of drug trafficking on a national scale, and, contrary to his campaign offer, an unprecedented militarization, which serves as a direct threat to the democratic exercise of the freedom to vote. In addition to all of the above, the President finds himself face to face with the jewel in his crown: constant and recurrent cases of family corruption.
For all these reasons, the government wants to stop the consolidation of the opposition before it is too late to reproduce its interests. It seems that it calculates that it is now or never. Its minions have provoked sterile debates that abound: “shoot or dump, split up at once, let’s be serious, pure versus immoral, we already know each other, if you know how to count, don’t count on me, etc.”.
The opposition coalition must decide which route it wants to follow once and for all. Either it will critically evaluate its mistakes to correct them as it goes along or succumbs to the debate with the President, which would mean recognizing the impossibility of advancing and winning, assuming defeatism from now on. In this decision, the citizen and social organizations that are being integrated with a great historical block have much to say and give orientation to the parties, which sometimes seem confused. Citizens must manifest themselves forcefully in favor of the necessary corrections of course and practices but persist in the united opposition march towards victory in 2024.
Defeatism must be answered with a resounding “never!
Hence the importance of the decision on the constitutional moratorium. And to those from the opposition who criticize the decision to declare the constitutional moratorium for not being “constructive or serious”, we should remind them that seriousness is not at stake (that was lost a long time ago, you know?) but the Republic and democracy. And to defend both, it will be necessary to assume the battle conditions ahead without naïve self-deception or clumsy romanticism.
Defeat can never be assumed as destiny. Moreover, to assume defeat is to surrender to the game of officialdom. There are embassies to give and to give away. We must be fully aware of that. Today it will be Corral, tomorrow Fayad, and later some other “lucid and pure” opponent. Who offers more?
Today the battle is to win the upper ground of the social mood. Society may succumb to the official chant that it is an invincible and unstoppable force. But also, the opposition bloc will offer the option of convincing itself in favor of the defense of plurality and democracy as the path the country deserves. The opposition will have to fight the state of mind promoted by the ruling party from the mañaneras pulpit that wants to crush the people’s self-confidence, promote their resignation, and snatch their trust. The element of subjectivity is present and essential. Elections and political battles are not won with organization and money alone. They are won by convincing the people that there is a better offer; otherwise, the other side will be able to strengthen its claim of the inevitability of its victory. Subjectivities that become objectivities: ultimately vote at the ballot box with conviction.
Good ideas contribute substantially to victory in elections. Good ideas must be conveyed with clarity and simplicity. Tyranny is overcome with a better offer and firmness of purpose and clarity to achieve its objectives. This is the task of the opposition so as not to get lost in the confusion and subjectivity of the moment.
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